Logo

Narrative

Support

Logo of The Great Race exhibition. Click on it for information about its design.

LEAP

Creatives

Online Exhibit

This exhibit focuses on the short narrative of the legendary race between the four-leggeds and the two-leggeds that James LaPointe (Oglala Lakota) published in his 1976 book, Legends of the Lakota.

According to his account, the purpose of the race was to determine which group of contestants would have precedence over the other. It also describes the formation of the Black Hills, which apparently was an unintended consequence of the race.

Our exhibit divides LaPointe's 1,218-word narrative into 8 “passages.” Each of these passages has been creatively interpreted or illustrated by four types of artworks—a 3-D artwork, a song, a 2-D artwork and a poem—thereby creating what we are calling “vignettes.” These eight vignettes recount the Great Race narrative using LaPointe's words along with 31 new original artworks which illustrate that the Great Race narrative is a rich source of inspiration, and that the Black Hills and its surrounding region will always retain a special significance in Lakotan cosmology.